The contested Washington Market space — one of 21 the parks department has auctioned off to vendors for the month — was the site, in 1851, of the first urban tree lot in the United States, for which a Catskill woodsman named Mark Carr paid a silver dollar in rent. Today, [George P.] Smith says he plays close to $30,000 a year for a mere 33 days of sales.

And those costs do trickle down to customers:

[T]he price of trees is steadily rising to levels that would shock residents of other cities. In 2010, a six-foot Fraser fir at SoHo Square ranged from $80 to $125. The Department of Parks' sample list of approved price ranges from 2011 indicates 10-foot Fraser firs running as high as $275. Prices on the street can be higher.